Social media offers plenty of opportunities to go viral with popular trends. For brands, viral marketing offers viral trends that can seem like golden opportunities to engage with audiences, gain visibility and boost their online presence.
However, navigating these trends can be a double-edged sword. While some trends can increase brands’ visibility and engagement, some can damage brand reputations and reduce customer trust. This begs the question: should brands be participating in current social media trends? In this article, we’ll look at:
• What Counts as a Viral Trend?
• The Life Cycle of a Viral Trend
• 7 Factors To Consider When Joining a Viral Trend
• 5 Benefits of Joining Viral Trends
• Risks of Joining Viral Trends
• 4 Best Practices for Viral Content Marketing
Here’s what you should know before creating content to join any social media trend.
What Counts as a Viral Trend?
A viral trend on social media can be any content that rapidly gains popularity and spreads across platforms, capturing the attention of a large audience in a short period. These trends can take various forms, including challenges, memes, hashtags, videos, etc.
When someone creates content that gains significant attention, other users — including other brands — tend to make similar content to join in on the virality. For example, on TikTok, joining a viral social media trend can involve using a sound, dueting a viral video or creating similar content.
The key characteristic of current social media trends is exponential growth fueled by engagement, such as shares, likes, comments and mentions. What sets viral social media trends apart from regular content is their ability to engage users emotionally and compel them to participate and share.
The Life Cycle of a Viral Trend
Viral social media trends come and go. Once a trend has been going for some time, users lose interest and move on to the next best thing. Once that opportunity has passed, there’s no point in trying to join the bandwagon. Understanding the life cycle of a viral trend is crucial for brands considering participation. Generally, a social media trend follows a predictable pattern:
• Emergence: Social media content is published and begins to gain significant traction.
• Peak: The trend reaches its maximum popularity, with widespread engagement and participation.
• Decline: Eventually, the trend becomes oversaturated and users begin to lose interest over new content for that trend. Users are starting to move on to the next big thing.
• Fade: The trend eventually loses relevance and fades away from public consciousness.
The entire cycle can last from a few days to several weeks, making timing a critical factor for brands deciding whether to join a trend and create viral trend content for their social media strategy.
7 Factors To Consider When Joining a Viral Trend
Onto the question: should brands hop on the bandwagon for viral social media trends?
“It depends,” said Nicole Law, Thrive’s Organic Social Media Strategist.
“It is important that brands acknowledge and assess the trend to make sure it is something that will be well-received and applicable to their audience.”
When creating your social media marketing strategy, it’s important to keep in mind that not all trends are suitable for viral marketing campaigns for your brand for various reasons. That’s why you should consider these factors before you share viral content marketing materials:
1. Relevance to Your Brand
Ensure the trend aligns with your brand’s values, products and target audience. If current social media trends don’t resonate with your brand alignment, avoid making viral marketing campaigns related to the trend.
2. Target Audience
Ensure that the social media marketing content aligns with your brand. Family-friendly brands should avoid content that’s inappropriate for children, while brands targeting senior adults should avoid using niche Gen Z slang.
3. Timing
It’s best to join viral trends when they’re at their peak. If you’re sharing viral marketing content during and after the trend’s decline, users are less likely to engage with your content.
4. Resource Availability
Assess whether you have the resources to create and manage trend-related content. For example, check whether your staff is willing to participate in a trend outside of your business’ busy hours.
5. Risk Assessment
Consider potential backlash or negative consequences associated with the trend. Avoid trends that could make your brand seem tone-deaf or nonchalant about current issues.
6. Originality
Many users and brands are likely to follow social media trends, so consider how your brand can stand out. Add your unique twist to the trend rather than merely copying what others are doing.
7. Legal and Ethical Considerations
Ensure compliance with legal standards and avoid trends that may be ethically questionable. For example, if your brand is in the medical industry, avoid sharing identifiable information about patients or sharing videos featuring patients without their consent.
5 Benefits of Joining Viral Trends
Implementing viral content marketing to your social media strategy, when done correctly, can result in plenty of positive engagement for your brand. Some key benefits for joining social media trends include:
1. Increased Visibility
“When a brand participates in a viral trend, it can extend their reach on social media to a larger audience,” said Law. Participating in viral trends can significantly boost your brand’s visibility, reaching new audiences who might not have encountered your brand otherwise.
2. Enhanced Engagement
Law also adds, “Likewise, when a post is shown to a larger audience, it opens the door for more social media engagement. Viral trends encourage interaction, leading to higher engagement levels. By participating, your brand can foster a sense of community and connection with your audience.”
3. Brand Personality
Joining in on trends can showcase your brand’s personality and creativity, making it appear more relatable and approachable. This humanizes your brand and can improve customer loyalty.
4. Trendsetting
Successfully engaging with a trend can position your brand as a trendsetter and an industry leader. This can enhance your reputation and influence within your market.
5. Cost-Effective Marketing
Viral trends can provide a cost-effective way to promote your brand. Leveraging the organic reach of viral content can reduce the need for expensive advertising campaigns.
Risks of Joining Viral Trends
On the other hand, joining on the wrong trends could result in backlash or confusion with your brand. Other risks to your brand can include:
Brand Misalignment
If the trend doesn’t align with your brand’s values or messaging, it can confuse or alienate your audience. This misalignment can lead to a loss of trust and credibility.
Negative Backlash
Participating in a controversial or poorly executed trend can result in negative feedback and damage your brand’s reputation. It’s essential to carefully evaluate the potential for backlash before jumping on board.
Oversaturation
Joining a trend late can make your brand appear out of touch and unoriginal. Audiences may view your efforts as a desperate attempt to stay relevant.
Resource Strain
Engaging with viral trends requires time and resources. Diverting these resources from other important projects can negatively impact your overall strategy.
Additionally, it’s important to remember that trends come and go. The fleeting nature of viral trends means that any benefits gained may be short-lived.
Without a long-term social media marketing strategy, the temporary boost in visibility may not translate into lasting results. Relying too heavily on viral content marketing can make it difficult to find high-engagement content you can reshare, especially once the trend has died out.
4 Best Practices for Viral Content Marketing
Like any other social media marketing strategy, creating viral marketing campaigns should be done carefully and purposefully to get satisfying returns. Before joining the next big social media trend, consider these best practices:
1. Stay True to Your Brand
Law recommends asking the question, “Is this the type of content my audience would like to see?” Your brand is an asset, so ensure that your social media management team creates content aligning with your brand’s core values and messaging. Authenticity resonates more with audiences and builds trust.
2. Act Quickly
Time is of the essence when it comes to viral trends. Unlike other types of evergreen content, content that leverages viral trends can’t stay in the planning stage for too long. Be prepared to act swiftly to maximize impact.
3. Monitor Performance
Joining viral trends doesn’t necessarily mean your content goes viral. Continuously monitor the performance of your trend-related content to gauge its effectiveness. This can help you gauge in the future if joining certain trends is worth the effort or if you can explore creating social media ads from your content.
4. Engage With Your Audience
Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments. If you’ve created a viral trend, sharing user-generated content and encouraging participation can prolong the trend.
Create an Effective Social Media Strategy With Thrive!
Joining a viral social media trend can be a powerful tool for enhancing your brand’s visibility and engagement, but it requires careful consideration and strategic planning. By weighing the benefits and risks and following best practices, your brand can navigate the dynamic landscape of social media trends effectively.
At Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, we’ve helped businesses build a social media presence that reflects their brand. Whether through organic social media content or jumping on the bandwagon of social media trends, our full-service agency combines the creativity and data-driven decision making needed for successful social media marketing.
Contact Thrive today to discuss your brand’s first steps into viral social media marketing!
